I'm on a Michael Pollan kick in my reading, right now. I am working slowly through The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals which I LOVE (as a longtime artist/naturalist, and sometime writer of natural history, the story of the intertwining systems elegantly and carefully described in this book just rivets me. I savor a little bit at a time...)

BUT. While I was looking around at his published books, I discovered that Pollan, too, had built his own tiny cabin in the woods! I couldn't order A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams fast enough! It's my couch-reading book, right now.

Different from my own A Naturalist's Cabin, in that it explores architectural styles and concerns (I didn't have an architect; Pollan does) more than the natural history and the process and personalities, it's still a very good read and gives insight into another aspect of tiny homes...and those who dream of them.

I wonder how many more of us there are out here, paging through that book and thinking about following Thoreau's example as well as his advice: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them..."

He did...I did...and so did a lot of other lovers of tiny, tiny houses...

(I review many more of the books I have read and loved in my new online bookstore, here: astore.amazon.com/httpcathyjohi-20. Pay me a visit, browse the categories, and if you have any questions or similar recommendations, I'd be delighted to hear them.)

Comments

I'm on a Pollan kick right now too. I read "Omnivore" and "In defense of food" and now I'm trying to put what I've learned into practice. As scary as the economy is right now, I can't help but think that maybe it's a good thing...a blessing in disguise as it causes so many of us to really question how much it is we actually need and what's best in life, and how FAR from that we've moved.

I absolutely agree, it IS a good thing. We could use to get back to basics a bit more. Remember where Pollan wrote that you have to eat 3-4 times as much of the less-than-good stuff to get the same amount of nutrients in organically grown? How can we NOT?

I've been trying to focus on a lot of that in our "Starving Artists in the Kitchen" series...we're certainly eating better, and less expensively!

Thanks again...

Thanks for the lead on Weston houses at flickr... and Pollan's cabin book. I liked his Botany of Desire best (but then, I have such major food issues that I didn't want to read about omnivorousness... I could have written that book... (and not in a good way!))